Cahalan, from Sydney, is the only female in the 32,000 nautical mile, eight-month around the world yacht race.

Held every four years, it is the world’s premier ocean race and is acknowledged as one of the most extreme sporting events in the world.

After their successful qualifying run from Brazil to Portugal last month, the 10-person crew will be sailing close to their Cascais base, on the coast near Lisbon, in preparation for the first in-port race in Sanxenxo, Spain, on November 5.

"There’s plenty to do," Cahalan said. "You’d be surprised how quickly six hours on the boat goes.

"We’ll be testing all the on-board equipment and doing manoeuvres.

"We haven’t had a chance to line up against any of the other boats yet, so we really won’t know where we stand until the in-port race in Sanxenxo.

"Other boats like ABN AMRO and Movistar have had longer preparation times, but we’ve got a lot of good sailors on board and we’ve been able to learn from others mistakes."

One of the top navigators in the world, Cahalan’s job is to predict and interpret the weather in order to position the boat in the right place at the right time.

"I help with pulling sails up and other tasks on the boat, but my main job is data collection," Cahalan said.

"I’m up on deck with a wireless laptop assessing the speed of the boat and figuring out how we can be faster.

"When I’m pulling sails or whatever, I just throw the laptop in a waterproof bag."

After the first in-port race, leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race starts from Vigo, Spain, on November 12.

The boats are expected to arrive in Melbourne from January 17 with the city’s first-ever stopover a catalyst for four-weekends of celebrations at Waterfront City, Melbourne Docklands, including a chance to see the Volvo Open 70 yachts up-close during the in-port race on February 4.

The fast, but fragile, yachts are capable of top speeds of up to 40 knots in ocean racing. Teams will endure storms, icebergs, the doldrums and constant challenges as they test the limits of human endurance across four oceans around the globe.